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WGBH Content Relevant to the Topic of: @ WGBH RSSen-usTue, 31 Mar 2015 00:00:00 ESTSat, 01 Jun 2013 08:58 AM +0000http://www.wgbh.org//articles/Helping-Children-See-Gender-Roles-Differently-8150
WGBH's Liz Breen participated in a project for the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. She expected to make just another video, but came away with a changed view of her career potential and her role in the television industry.
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At the start of my senior year at Boston University, I had the opportunity to produce a children’s short for the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. I knew this had the potential to help my career, and that turned out to be true in ways I couldn’t have imagined initially. I thought I would be creating a video for a celebrity client that I could watch on television, and one that ultimately I could use in a portfolio to land an entry-level job out of school. However, this production changed the way I view my entire career and my role within the television industry.

The task sounds almost impossible: explain and combat gender stereotypes in media to children ages six to nine, and do this in around two minutes. After a few audible GULPS, a little bit of stressed-out pencil chewing and a lot of group brainstorming, we had our idea. We were going to build on the rise of superhero movies by focusing on real-life heroes – a nurse and a firefighter. The twist was that we would feature a male nurse and a female firefighter.

We started the filming process by interviewing two classes of second graders. I went in a little skeptical. I thought of these kids as born in the 21st century, where we have female politicians and stay-at-home dads. I didn’t expect to be giving them any surprising information. Yet the answers to some of our questions were astonishing. When describing a nurse, several of the students said matter-of-factly, “She wears dresses,” despite the fact that they have probably never seen a nurse in a dress outside of old-timey war movies or Halloween costumes. And when describing a firefighter, the children had a definite pronoun of choice: “He wears boots” or “He is fast”. Most confounding of all, when we revealed that the nurse we were featuring was a man and the firefighter was a woman, many children were shocked by this idea or even resisted the idea altogether, stating that they didn’t think the opposite gender would perform their duties as well.

Where could these children possibly be getting these stereotypes from? Certainly, many if not most had mothers who worked, so these stereotypes aren’t being reinforced in the home. Then it hit me – the media. The television and movies they watch (AKA my career).

Actress Geena Davis talked about gender and media during a visit to WGBH. (Liza Voll/WGBH)

Suddenly, I felt a burden of responsibility that I had not otherwise felt. I thought I was going to school to learn to create things that people could watch, enjoy and ultimately walk away from. But it doesn’t work like that. Media is sticky, even stickier to young minds.
That weight of responsibility only grew heavier the more research I read about gender disparities behind the camera. Only 7 percent of directors, 13 percent of writers and 20 percent of producers are female. Men outnumber women in key production roles 5 to 1, and that singular female in production—that’s me.

So was I scared? I ain’t scared o’ nothin’! I felt empowered. There are fewer of me, that’s true, but that only means that my voice can carry more weight, that my viewpoints are needed that much more. Also true, I’m consistently the youngest person on my production teams nowadays, and yet I feel compelled to do more than exist on the periphery. I know that creating responsible media is in my best interest as well as the interest of future generations.

Is it a coincidence that months after this video wrapped I took a job working for public television at WGBH? Probably not, but who can say for certain? What I do know is this: I created a project that I am tremendously proud of to this day, with some of the cutest darn stop motion animation you can make out of construction paper. Most important of all, that work prompts children and adults alike to think about the media they consume.
]]>Wed, 30 May 2012 17:25 PM +0000http://www.wgbh.org//articles/Teacher-of-the-Year-Questions-School-Funding-6347
http://www.wgbh.org//articles/Teacher-of-the-Year-Questions-School-Funding-6347
May 31, 2012

Teacher Kathleen Turner at the WGBH studios. (Annie Shreffler/WGBH)

BOSTON — The newly appointed Massachusetts Teacher of the Year is about to spend 12 months traveling the state, making speeches and conducting workshops, in addition to teaching. And she's already voiced concern for the wide variations in funding for public schools from town to town.

Kathleen Turner teaches French at Sharon High School. She said the demographic makeup of her town is always changing.

"There are increasing numbers of students for whom English is a second language. We have students who speak Russian; we have students who speak Asian languages," she said.

Turner, who grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard in 1994, said she'd like to see new funding models for public schools, which currently draw from local budgets.

"I think that there should be some way that property tax not be the primary source of funding for public education," she said. "What if all of the property taxes went into a main pool and then it got redistributed per pupil in the state?"

After writing essays and conducting interviews to win the state award, Turner will move on to the National Teacher of the Year Competition. Those results will be announced next spring. Turner also received a $3,000 grant for classroom initiatives and professional development.

]]>Fri, 18 May 2012 14:00 PM +0000http://www.wgbh.org//articles/How-Three-Minutes-Changed-a-Fathers-Life-6276
Father's Day, that chronicles a road trip he took with his special-needs son.
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BOSTON — Buzz Bissinger knew from the minute his son Zach was born, the second of twin boys to be born prematurely and weighing in at just over a pound, that he was faced with the challenge of getting to know the kind of son he never expected or wanted.

"In some ways this book is about three minutes," Bissinger said, explaining that because Zach was deprived of oxygen and suffered brain damage, his family's life was changed instantly.

It was after years of struggling and difficulty with marriage as well as how to be a father to these boys that Bissinger got the idea to take a road trip with Zach and get to know him better, one-on-one. But Bissinger is the first to admit he's not easy to travel with.

"I can be volatile. I get lost a lot," he said. Along the way he discovered that Zach's unflappable demeanor and talent for reading maps had a soothing effect and gave Bissinger the empathy he needed to find a way to talk with, and about, his son.

Bissinger's style in his memoir is to be blunt and state the whole range of emotions he experiences as a parent of a child with special needs. He feels rage and a sense of being cheated when faced with "really feeling stuck" in a situation he can't change. He decided the voice he would take on was one that could voice those frustrations that other parents might feel unable to express.

Driving across the country gave Bissinger the opportunity to ask a lot of direct questions. "My brain isn't right, I can't go to school like my brother does," Zach said to his father in answer to whether or not he knew what brain damage was. But he also told his father that the endless questions along their journey were upsetting and he couldn't answer them all. That gave Bissinger the understanding that his son was actually maturing. The trip drew them closer and helped a father understand how to accept his relationship with his son, wherever it goes next.

Playwright Kirsten Greenidge's latest play, "The Luck of the Irish", is about an upwardly mobile African American family in the 1950s that moves from inner-city Boston to a white part of town.

"Luck of the Irish"(Hungtington Theatre)

BOSTON — In the late 1950s, Lucy and Rex Taylor, a well-to-do African-American couple living in Boston’s South End, aspire to move to a nearby suburb to provide a better life for their two daughters. Unable to purchase a home in a segregated neighborhood themselves, they pay Patty Ann and Joe Donovan, a struggling Irish family to “ghost-buy” the house on their behalf and then sign over the deed. Fifty years later, Lucy’s granddaughter Hannah lives in the house with her family, where she grapples with the contemporary racial and social issues that stem from living in a primarily white community. When Lucy dies and leaves the house to Hannah and her sister Nessa, the now elderly Donovans return and ask for “their” house back.

Though the play is not autobiographical, Greenidge writes what she knows. Her grandparents moved from Boston to Arlington in the '60s. It’s an era that Greenidge captures in her play. In toggling between 1950s and the 21st century, "The Luck of the Irish" explores the timeless themes of race, class, and intergenerational conflict.

The play's director, Melia Bensussen, praises Greenidge's script. "The core, emotional truth sang to me the first time I read this play. It's so honest. There are no villains. There are no heroes. There are human beings trying to make the right choices….It's also about the struggle of being a parent. When you see Hannah in this perfect storm of race, class and modern parenting, she has a wonderful monologue, and I don't know a working mother who has seen the play and not been utterly recognized by Kirsten's writing, no matter race or class, because it outlines the emotional difficulty of what contemporary society asks of all of us. The construction of the Luck of the Irish and the complexity of all these lives revealed to us, without judgment, it's revelatory in this way," she said.

Although the plot would suggest a right and wrong, Greenidge said, "It was really important to me not to vilify anybody. You've got an African-American family and an Irish Catholic family together on stage in Boston, and you've got to do that stuff right."
]]>Thu, 12 Apr 2012 18:31 PM +0000http://www.wgbh.org//articles/NPR-Hosts-Visit-WGBH-Play-Trivia-6001
Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me! visited WGBH's studios this week. Listen to Jordan Weinstein try to stump them with Bay State trivia.
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BOSTON — The cast from one of NPR's award-winning weekend shows, Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! (The NPR News Quiz) was in town this week for a live taping of their show at the Citi Performing Arts Center. The hosts of the show, Carl Kasell and Peter Sagal, paid a visit to the WGBH studios to greet public media supporters, and they sat down for a few minutes with WGBH's own All Things Considered host, Jordan Weinstein.

Weinstein subjected the pair to his own game, which he called "Stump the Boston Visitors with Our Favorite Trivia," with questions sent to him by WGBH Facebook fans. Listen to the uncut interview to find out just how well Sagal could recall Boston trivia from his days here as a Harvard student, and also learn a few fun Massachusetts facts to share at your next party. Sagal did call foul on Weinstein's question about the original name of the Boston Red Sox, claiming the first name was the Boston Pilgrims, not the Red Stockings.

However, it's clear that WGBH didn't have the answer quite right, either. As teams for the National and American Leagues started to establish themselves in the early 1900s, all kinds of nicknames were applied to both of Boston's baseball teams: Pilgrims, Puritans, Plymouth Rocks, Somersets, Collinsmen, Beaneaters, Triumvirs or Seleemen (after manager Frank Selee).

But the name that really stuck with the early Red Sox team, if you judge by the "BA" uniform in an old photograph Nowlin displays, wasThe Americans.

Thanks to the WGBH staff and supporters who contributed a trivia question for Sagal and Kasell.
Alison Cohen, Maria Daniels, Richie Downing, Carrie English, Joel Lempicki, Seth Mascolo, Michele O'Brien, Tere Ramos-Dunne, Rachel Silverman-Sommer, Mike Wood and Olivia Wong.
]]>Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:11 PM +0000http://www.wgbh.org//articles/Re-energize-with-a-Glass-Sam-Adams-New-Brew-5989
26.2 Brew" in honor of the Boston Marathon. The limited-run beer will be served at the finish line next Monday, as well as in bars along the Marathon route.
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Co-founder and chairman of the Boston Beer Company, Jim Koch, shows off a pint of Sam Adams in the WGBH studios. Photo: Annie Shreffler

BOSTON — Jim Koch started Samuel Adams as a niche craft brewery in 1984, using a brewing recipe developed by his great-great-grandfather. Koch grew it into the second largest U.S. beer maker, and one of Boston's most recognizable exports.

He talked with Callie Crossley about the new beer Samuel Adams is brewing up: a "26.2 Brew" in honor of the Boston Marathon. The limited-run beer will be served at the finish line next Monday, as well as in bars along the Marathon route.
]]>Mon, 09 Apr 2012 17:16 PM +0000http://www.wgbh.org//articles/Rachel-Dratch-Life-after-SNL-5976
Girl Walks into a Bar.
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Although Dratch says she still has those "pinch me moments" from her time at SNL, it wasn't the ticket to endless success she might have wished for. Instead, she started to get calls to play the tough, unattractive female characters. "I wasn't getting called in to play the lipstick lesbians," Dratch says of the gnarly parts she received from the casting offices. As she tries to avoid getting typecast, however, she says she is happy about a recent pilot she acted in, where she plays "the odd friend."

What's really impacted Dratch's life in such a way that she felt it deserved its own memoir is her imminent entry into motherhood. Dratch shares many a hilarious moment about her dating life, and agrees with Callie in the end that good things show up when you're not looking for them — like a great guy who can change your life. But she hasn't lost her sympathy for women out there still wondering if they'll start a family. In fact, she kinda rushed through opening her baby shower gifts for just that reason.

There are people who like baby showers: women in their 20s, grandmas to be, people who already have babies and people who love to look at stuff. These are 'the Shower People.' There are people who hate baby showers: women in their late 30s to early 40s who think they might want kids but haven't met the right guy yet (a.k.a., me!); also, people who don't like looking at stuff and have to pass it around and say, 'Oh, it's a shirt, only it's a tiny shirt!' or 'It's pants, only they're tiny!' (a.k.a., me!). This deadly combo made me really have to steel myself to go to a baby shower.

Corby Kummer, senior editor at The Atlantic, brought along Easter Peeps on his visit to WGBH studios.

BOSTON — Corby Kummer, senior editor at The Atlantic, recipient of five James Beard Journalism Awards and one of the most widely read, authoritative, and creative food writers in the U.S. returns to The Emily Rooney Show for another conversation about what's Off the Menu and what's on. He questions all the dust kicked-up about pink slime in your ground beef, shares his review of The Blue Room in Kendall Square and saves your Easter or Passover meal with his favorite recipe recommendations from these terrific cookbooks:

In a bowl, whisk together the cider and sugar until the sugar dissolves. Warm the cream to room temperature, testing it with your finger, then transfer it to a pitcher. Gradually whisk the warm cream into the citder, a few spoonfuls at a time, pouring it from a height of at least 6 inches (15 cm). When all the cream has been added, continue whisking for 1 minute. (You can also use an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.) Taste and adjust the sugar.
Spoon the mixture into 8 syllabub glasses, cover loosely, and leave in a cool place. It will soon start to separate into a layer of cider punch topped with creamy mousse, two treats in one. Syllabub can be kept for a day or two in the refrigerator and the flavor will mellow. Serve it cool, or chilled.

Lightly dust the brisket with flour, then sprinkle with pepper to taste. Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a large ovenproof enameled cast-iron pot or other heavy pot with a lid just large enough to hold the brisket snugly. Add the brisket to the pot and brown on both sides until crusty brown areas appear on the surface here and there, 5 to 7 minutes per side. Transfer the brisket to a platter, turn up the heat a bit, then add the onions to the pot and stir constantly with a wooden spoon, scraping up any browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pot. Cook until the onions have softened and developed a rich brown color but aren't yet caramelized, 10 to 15 minutes.

Turn off the heat and place the brisket and any accumulated juices on top of the onions.
Spread the tomato paste over the brisket as if you were icing a cake. Sprinkle with salt and more pepper to taste, then add the garlic and carrot to the pot. Cover the pot, transfer to the oven, and cook the brisket for 1 1/2 hours.

Transfer the brisket to a cutting board and, using a very sharp knife, slice the meat across the grain into approximately 1/8-inch-thick slices. Return the slices to the pot, overlapping them at an angle so that you can see a bit of the top edge of each slice. The end result should resemble the original unsliced brisket leaning slightly backward. Check the seasonings and, if absolutely necessary, add 2 to 3 teaspoons of water to the pot.

Cover the pot and return to the oven. Lower the heat to 325°F and cook the brisket until it is fork-tender, about 2 hours. Check once or twice during cooking to make sure that the liquid is not bubbling away. If it is, add a few more teaspoons of water—but not more. Also, each time you check, spoon some of the liquid on top of the roast so that it drips down between the slices.

It is ready to serve with its juices, but, in fact, it's even better the second day.
]]>Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:05 PM +0000http://www.wgbh.org//articles/Yul-Kwon-Visits-WGBH-5922
Survivor fame stopped by WGBH studios to talk about his new PBS series, America Revealed, which premieres Wednesday at 10 p.m. on WGBH-2.
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BOSTON — He's known for his good looks and his survival skills, and now he'll help us understand what's behind the complex systems that keep our high-tech society functioning. He's Yul Kwon, and he stopped in at WGBH studios to talk about his upcoming show, the PBS series America Revealed. (Premiering on WGBH 2 on Wednesday, April 11 at 10pm.)

Kwon made his mark in television when he won on the 13th season of Survivor in 2006, and People Magazine named him "Sexiest Man Alive" that same year. Now Kwon will put his Stanford degree in Symbolic Systems to use, showing viewers the details behind systems we never consider, like how fruit gets from California to Maine, or how we keep thousands of active flights organized in the air at any given time, or perhaps how our electricity delivery system keeps 300 thousand Americans enlightened.

Why PBS and why now? Kwon told Emily Rooney, "I grew up watching PBS. My parents emigrated to this country from South Korea without any money, and they couldn't afford to put me or my brother into preschool. The way that we learned English and saw a better life for ourselves was by watching programs like The Electric Company and Sesame Street and later on, Nature and NOVA. I've always felt that public media is one of the most valuable resources that this country has, especially for people who don't have a lot of means. [Hosting America Revealed] was an opportunity for me to give back and introduce PBS to a whole new generation of viewers."

A total of 18 teams signed up for WGBH's first spelling bee. (Photos by Annie Shreffler)

BOSTON — The lobby of WGBH's Brighton studios filled to capacity last week as staff came out in droves to see their colleagues show off some pretty great speller skills in the first WGBH Spelling Bee.

Organizers of the Bee, searching for top spellers to represent WGBH at the First Literacy 23rd Corporate Spelling Bee in May, were pleasantly surprised at the number of Bee enthusiasts who work among them. A total of 18 teams entered the contest, representing WGBH productions (Frontline's The Bee-Line, American Experience's Could You Use That in a Sentence), broadcast services (Spellenium Falcons from 89.7 WGBH Radio), and business departments (The Libarians from the WGBH Media Library and Archives, The Bees Neese from WGBH's National Marketing team).

Hosting the WGBH Bee was Mike Wood. By day, he's part of the team that promotes such WGBH-produced children's series as Arthur, Curious George, and Martha Speaks. Wood operates his own trivia company, Egghead Team Trivia, by night, and also performs stand-up comedy around the Boston area.

Skye Morrison Kramer, CEO of First Literacy, an organization dedicated to helping more adults develop reading and communication skills, joined WGBH employees in the audience, checking off the words that her staff had provided. Kramer called the First Literacy Corporate Spelling Bee "one of the better kept secrets in Boston": It's the biggest fundraiser her organization holds each year, and she hopes to expand its reach and surpass their $300,000 goal this year.

During the WGBH Bee, teams fell to tough words: yapok, hyssop, bowdlerize. In the end, the trophy went to the Foundation De-SPELL-opment team—Christian Gay, Linda Harrar, and Jesse Hergert, all from WGBH's Foundation Development group—with the word contumelious, but thankfully they did not "behave in a scornful or insulting manner" toward their competitors.

The winning team now goes on to represent WGBH in the First Literacy Bee on May 3rd in downtown Boston. They will face tough challengers from Houghton Mifflin, The Cabot Corporation, newcomers The United Way, and others, but their ultimate goal is to capture the title from last year's winners, Eaton Vance Investment Managers.